page_title: Simson (company)
section_title: 1934–48
hierarchical_section_title: Simson (company) / History / 1934–48
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: In Deutschland hergestellte Fliegerabwehrkanone vom Typ 2-cm-Flak 30; im Einsatz (beispielsweise) bei der Finnischen Luftverteidigung im Zweiten Weltkrieg. English: German made 2-cm-Flak 30 (20 mm anti-aircraft gun late 30'). Used by (for instance) Defence Forces of Finland at WW II.
context_page_description: Simson was a German company which produced firearms, automobiles, bicycles and motorcycles, and mopeds. Under the Third Reich, the factory was taken from the Jewish Simson family, and was renamed several times under Nazi and later Communist control. The Simson name was reintroduced as a brand name for mopeds produced at the factory in the former German Democratic Republic. Simson mopeds were then produced in Suhl until 2002.
context_section_description: Hitler's government forced the Jewish Simson family to flee the country in 1936. Under the dispossession of Jewish industrialists a trustee took control of the firm, and so by merger with other factories the Berlin Suhler Waffen- und Fahrzeugwerke (BSW) was formed. In the same year the factory produced its first motorcycle, the BSW 98, which had a 98 cc engine and two-speed transmission. Critics of the Nazi government suggested a different meaning for the BSW initials: Bis Simson Wiederkommt ("until Simson returns").
  After the Simson brothers were exiled the factory increased weapons production. From 1939 the company was called Gustloff-Werke – Waffenwerk Suhl, named after assassinated Swiss Nazi Wilhelm Gustloff, and had subsidiaries such as the Otto Eberhardt Patronenfabrik ("Otto Eberhardt Cartridge Factory"). As well as the main works in Suhl, the Gustloff-Werke had branch factories at Greiz in Thuringia and at Łódź in Nazi-occupied Poland. Sachs-engined motorcycles from 47 cc to 123 cc were made within the Gustloff group from about 1934 until about 1940.
  Gustloff-Werke products included 7.92 mm calibre Panzerbüchse 39 anti-tank rifles, 7.92 mm calibre MG 42 machine guns, gun carriages for 20 mm calibre Flak 38 anti-aircraft guns, and various calibres of small arms ammunition. The firm continued to build bicycles, weapons and cars until 1945.
  In 1946, by order of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany the manufacturing plant was partially dismantled and transported to the Soviet Union (USSR) as part of the Soviet reparations programme for the damage inflicted on the USSR by Germany in the Second World War. In 1947 the factory was integrated into the Soviet Sowjetische Aktiensgesellschaft Awtowelo (SAG Awtowelo or "Soviet Avtovelo Company Limited"). Автовело or Avtovelo is a Russian portmanteau word derived from автомобиль (avtomobil = "car") and велосипед (velociped = "bicycle"). It was adopted because initially all production was for export to the USSR.
caption: BSW 20mm anti-aircraft cannon
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